There are a lot of reasons Amazon decided to locate HQ2 in the Washington, DC metro area, from the area's being in the "bull's-eye of America's internet," to the human resources talent available, to the proximity to the US government.

But one of the biggest reasons could be that CEO Jeff Bezos owns a $23 million mansion in Washington DC's Kalorama neighborhood, a historic area that's home to the Obamas, Jared Kushner, and Ivanka Trump, among numerous other bigwigs in media, politics, diplomacy, and lobbying.

On a visit last winter, I found it to be a sleepy, ritzy community full of embassies, security guards, and expensive real estate.

After nearly a year of deliberation, Amazon has announced where it will build its second headquarters, dubbed HQ2.

Instead of choosing one city, the company has decided to build two new headquarters, in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens, New York, and the Crystal City area of Arlington, Virginia. As Business Insider's Dennis Green reported, each of the two locations will get about half of the expected 50,000 employees, and a portion of the investment.

It should be little surprise. Arlington, Virginia is only a 15-20 minute drive from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' biggest recent purchase — a $23 million, 27,000-square-foot mansion in Kalorama, the historic DC neighborhood home to bigwigs in media, politics, diplomacy, and lobbying.

The house is made up of two historic mansions that Bezos is converting to a single-family home. A lot of construction was underway the day we walked by. Bezos is said to be spending $12 million to renovate the homes and the surrounding property.

The Pope House was designed by and named for John Russell Pope, the architect behind the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. Three stories tall, it will be the family's private living quarters.

The Wood House will be used for entertaining. The Washingtonian said the Bezoses would most likely use it for "A-level socializing," describing it as the "party pad of epic proportions." A nearly 1,500-square-foot ballroom takes up one side of the main level and rises two stories.

The third floor of the Wood House accommodates guests and staff members. Between the two homes, there is a total of five living rooms and lounges, three kitchens, two libraries/studies, two workout rooms, 25 bathrooms, and 11 bedrooms.

Sheridan-Kalorama, where Bezos lives, is very quiet. The only store we saw was the Open Door Market.

It serves as a wine store, a grocery, a deli, a laundromat, and a dry cleaner.

Nearby, you'll find the Spanish Steps, a broad concrete staircase built in 1911 as part of the "City Beautiful" movement. Named after Rome's famous staircase, it is Washington's only public park that occupies a street.

The park also has a playground, several athletic fields, and a basketball court. Maybe Obama, famously a fan of pickup basketball games, will start playing here.

This is the Irish Embassy. Sheridan-Kalorama is also often known as the Embassy Row neighborhood because of its more than 70 embassies and diplomatic residences. Most are on nearby Massachusetts Avenue.

Sheridan-Kalorama is full of stately colonial houses with manicured lawns. The neighborhood is one of the few in DC that is elevated above the city — providing good views.

Most of the houses in the neighborhood are brick colonial houses. Despite the concentration of politicos in the area, neighbors tend to check their partisanship at the door, Jim Bell, an executive vice president of TTR Sotheby's International Realty who lives in Kalorama, told The Washington Diplomat.

This is the residence of the ambassador of Pakistan, Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry. The Pakistani Embassy is in Cleveland Park, a short drive away.

Next, we headed to 24th Street Northwest, where Secretary of State Rex Tillerson lives. While the cars in the neighborhood hadn't been very impressive, there was a noticeable uptick in quality on Tillerson's block.

Tillerson bought this townhouse for $5.6 million in February. The house has five bedrooms, five full bathrooms, and two half bathrooms. The previous owner of the house was the AOL executive Richard Hanlon.

It's unclear who lives here, but this place is a lot of house. About a third of the neighborhood's residents are tech-industry or hedge-fund execs.

These historic call boxes, 19th-century public phones people could use to call the police or fire department, are all over the neighborhood. Residents have turned them into mini museums commemorating Kalorama history — this one was about the numerous Supreme Court justices who have lived there.

This call box talked about how five US presidents — Warren G. Harding, William Howard Taft, Herbert Hoover, Woodrow Wilson, and Franklin D. Roosevelt — lived in Kalorama between 1916 and 1930.

A lot of houses in the neighborhood have a palatial European style. The area is known for having the biggest houses in DC. The average home price in Kalorama was about $3.5 million in April, according to Redfin.

But that doesn't mean the leaves are getting cleaned up any faster. Someone needs to step out of their mansion with a leaf blower on this street ...

This house on Wyoming Avenue belongs to Juleanna Glover, a public-affairs consultant who has been described by Bloomberg as someone you "need to know" in DC. She often throws parties with lots of important people.

The neighborhood is full of beautiful trees and finely manicured lawns. I guess if you're going to spend a few million dollars on a house, you're not going to skimp on landscaping.

A short drive from Sheridan-Kalorama is Rock Creek Park, a 2,000-acre urban park. But if you don't want to leave, some trails extend to the neighborhood. Rock Creek forms the border of Sheridan-Kalorama.

And here we are at the block of Belmont Road Northwest, where the Obamas live. Of course a police car was blocking anyone from entering or exiting. I headed to the other side of the street to see whether it was blocked there as well ...

And it was. When I asked the police officer whether residents were upset about the blockade, he laughed. "They get free security," he said. "They're happy." That makes sense, considering the Obamas' neighbors are Bloomberg Media CEO Justin Smith and the lobbyist Tony Podesta, among others.